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A couple of weeks ago I've finished "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" by Tom Clancy. A sequel of "The Hunt for Red October": late 80s, CIA vs. KGB, KGB vs. FBI, nuke disarmament negotiations, race for "star wars"… Well, a "blatant anti-soviet" staff.
Of course, there are a number of funny things about the soviet reality, but in general it's much more accurate then the most part of Hollywood productions. Well, for lapsus I'll maybe create a special posting, and here I'd like to cite two quotations on which I could have a different opinion 20 or 15 years ago, but now I'd rather agree with.
"...It was dark outside his window. Moscow was not lit the same way as an American city. Perhaps it was the near-total absence of cars at this hour. Washington always had people moving about. There was always an unconscious certainty that somewhere people were up and about their business whatever that might be. The concept didn't translate here… People didn't go about THEIR business here. For the most part they went about the business assigned to them by someone else..."
"...The KGB could scarcely predict what the American government would do. There was no way they could be prepared for the individual actions of two hundred-plus million people who bounced from decision to decision.
That was it, he thought. They have to make so many DECISIONS every day. Which food to buy, which road to take, which car to drive. He wondered how his countrymen would handle such a huge load of decisions. Forced upon you every day. Chaos, he knew. It would result in anarchy, and that was historically the greatest fear of Russians..."
PS: Btw, back to "The Hunt for Red October": guess how he did it when wrote it in 84 or 85? I mean, what the hell made Clancy to give such a name to the political officer – the zampolit - of Red October, to whom the captain broke the neck before to hijack the submarine to the US? PUTIN!!! Is it a coincidence or something more?
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Of course, there are a number of funny things about the soviet reality, but in general it's much more accurate then the most part of Hollywood productions. Well, for lapsus I'll maybe create a special posting, and here I'd like to cite two quotations on which I could have a different opinion 20 or 15 years ago, but now I'd rather agree with.
"...It was dark outside his window. Moscow was not lit the same way as an American city. Perhaps it was the near-total absence of cars at this hour. Washington always had people moving about. There was always an unconscious certainty that somewhere people were up and about their business whatever that might be. The concept didn't translate here… People didn't go about THEIR business here. For the most part they went about the business assigned to them by someone else..."
"...The KGB could scarcely predict what the American government would do. There was no way they could be prepared for the individual actions of two hundred-plus million people who bounced from decision to decision.
That was it, he thought. They have to make so many DECISIONS every day. Which food to buy, which road to take, which car to drive. He wondered how his countrymen would handle such a huge load of decisions. Forced upon you every day. Chaos, he knew. It would result in anarchy, and that was historically the greatest fear of Russians..."
PS: Btw, back to "The Hunt for Red October": guess how he did it when wrote it in 84 or 85? I mean, what the hell made Clancy to give such a name to the political officer – the zampolit - of Red October, to whom the captain broke the neck before to hijack the submarine to the US? PUTIN!!! Is it a coincidence or something more?
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